The most anticipated smartphone launch of the spring -- the Galaxy S IV -- was held yesterday in New York City. Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930) largely delivered on the hype, with a smartphone packed with proprietary touchless control technologies, a 1080p screen, and a greatly improved camera. Critics pointed to the larger size as potentially being too much, and attacked the plastic case design, but that didn't stop Samsung from receiving a lot of positive press.

That good show appears to have Samsung's foes rattled. Following Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) pre-eventmedia blitz trashing on the GSIV, fellow Android phonemaker HTC Corp. (TPE:2498) has tagged in with some attacks of its own.

The company posted attack posts on Twitter during the launch event. One post parodied Samsung's tagline of "The Next Big Thing" with the hash-tag "#theNextBigFlop".

Outside the Samsung event, HTC team members demoed their rival HTC One device. The handed out cocoa and $100 coupons for the HTC One. Comments HTC President Jason Mackenzie to All Things D, "For us it’s a good opportunity to let people compare real-time. We have the best smartphone in the world right now, and we want to seize the opportunity to get it into as many hands as possible."

The HTC One

The Taiwanese company's CMO Ben Ho followed up with some more insults, commenting:

With a continuation of a plastic body, and a larger screen being the most obvious physical change, Samsung's new Galaxy pales in comparison to the all-aluminum unibody HTC One.

This is more of the same. HTC remains the best option for those people looking for the best technology wrapped in premium design. Our customers want something different from the mainstream, who appear to be the target for the Galaxy.

Our customers want original cutting-edge technology, mouth-watering design and a premium feel from their mobiles, which is why we created the HTC One.

He also toldEngadget, "Looking at the software features of the S4, we think Samsung spent more on marketing than innovation."

The noisy attacks seem a bit ironic coming from a company whose corporate motto is "quietly brilliant". But perhaps HTC is a little jealous of all the attention Samsung received; while the Samsung GSIV event was heavily covered, TV media largely ignored HTC's flagship launch of the 1080p One smartphone.

That's strange. Despite the screen being larger, the Galaxy S4 is smaller in every dimension than the Galaxy S III.

They must be talking about the screen being too large. Ugh.

Pretty much the only people claiming anything over 4" is "too large" are the guys who think the iPhone 5's 4" screen is the "perfect size." Those are the very same ones who previously claimed that anything over 3.5" was too large (all prior iPhones were 3.5").

I don't get wasting all that great functionality on a small screen. Any modern smartphone from any platform does so much and gives you such a great experience, to do all that on a tiny little screen just seems like a waste. You may as well go back to an old 9 key phone.